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USA - California - San Luis Obispo - Edna Valley

Syrah

Producer Notes

Alban Vineyards is a California wine estate producing various Rhone style blends and varietal wine. The winery is located in Edna Valley, near Arroyo Grande in the southern corner of San Luis Obispo County.

Starting in 1985, John Alban planted grapes for other people until he bought an estate in 1989. With a focus on creating wines made from Rhone Valley varieties, Alban became one of...
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Drink Dates

($74) Glass-staining purple. Explosively perfumed bouquet of spicy red and dark berries, olive, tobacco, iodine and charred meat; I could smell this for hours. Spicy blackberry, cassis and bitter cherries are complicated by violet pastille and suave vanilla and cinnamon. Gains weight but retains clarity on the long, juicy finish. The tannins make a late appearance but are quickly buried under the sheer volume of fruit.

Professional content appears courtesy of Vinfolio

WA
96

Source Wine Advocate

Issue 172

Drink Dates
2006-2021

The intense, inky/ruby/purple-tinged 2005 Syrah Reva Vineyard boasts gorgeous notes of graphite, smoke, roasted meat, herbs, and oodles of blackberries and creme de cassis. This full-bodied, fabulously rich Syrah is a superb success for the vintage. The good news is, there are 2,500 six-packs.

Herb, jammy and plummy aroma, lovely mouth coating fruit, but it lacks structure and dimension to be a great wine, decanted for 1 hr, drank for the next 2 hrs, finished the remaining half btl 24 hrs later.

Wow. I felt like we could light a match and use this as rocket fuel. Decanted for two hours. The nose was an initial brilliant mix of dark cherry, black raspberry, and beef jerky. First taste was rich with lots of boysenberry, cola, and earthy flavors. Then at about 30 minutes the whole thing turned into an absolute alcoholic train wreck. Never had that happen before. Almost a Jekyll and Hyde wine. First 30 minutes - 94 points. Post 1 hour - 77 points. Going to cork it and see how the rest performs tomorrow. No score given for now.

This is so ludicrously black that it in fact has no rim. It is as impenetrable as the sky on a moonless night. Seriously endowed and full of imbedded intensity, hinting at charred meats, boysenberry, blackberry ganache, freshly paved road tar, violet and peppercorns that are hauntingly polished, poised and all in reserve. This young Syrah is a volcano waiting to erupt, becoming more and more expansive in the mouth as the wine evolves but always retaining a beautiful sense of tension and symmetry. Textured to the 9?s and begging for some time in the cellar to unwind its hidden potential

WinePosts

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Drink date is averaged using VinCellar members' most recent start and end drink date submissions for this wine.